THE price of the average home could crash through the £200,000 barrier this summer on the back of rising property values, according to Britain's biggest building society.

A typical three-bed semi is now at a record high of £195,166 and experts have predicted further rises.

Prices have already jumped £5, 712 in the past three months, according to the Nationwide's latest index.

The value of the average home was £189, 454 in March and £193,048 in April before rising to May's record.

Alex Gosling, of online estate agents HouseSimple.com, said: "Who would have believed that average house prices in the UK could ever hit £200,000?

"Now there's a real possibility that ceiling might be breached this year unless we see significantly more housing stock coming on to the market.

"Although annual house price growth has slowed, average house prices have still shot up.

"This jump may well be due to the General Election effect but now that bottleneck has cleared, homeowners should have more confidence in the housing market.

"We're already seeing that, with a flurry of new properties coming on to the market.

"This trend will hopefully continue, because the market doesn't need runaway prices right now - it needs sensible growth and a healthy balance of buyers and sellers."

From April to May the uptick in values was 0.3 per cent and 4.6 per cent annually compared to annual inflation of 5.2 per cent in April.

Nationwide forecast the pace of house price inflation to steady at broadly the same level as wage increases, which it says have historically been about four per cent per year.

Now there's a real possibility that ceiling might be breached this year unless we see significantly more housing stock coming on to the market.

Alex Gosling, HouseSimple.com

But this will depend on the demand not outstripping the supply of homes coming to the market and a shortage pushing prices upwards.

Jonathan Hopper, managing director of the buying agents Garrington Property Finders, said: "May was the month when the housing market reset its compass, and these figures confirm that its upward price momentum was unchecked.

"We suspect it's only a matter of time before its national average price hits the symbolic £200k mark."

There was also an increase in the number of people buying homes for cash to an all-time high of 38 per cent in the first quarter of 2015.

Robert Gardner, Nationwide's chief economist, said: "Annual house price growth is now running at less than half the pace prevailing in mid-2014.

"However, much will depend on supply side developments - in recent years the rate of building activity has remained well below that required to keep up with population growth.

"Continued healthy demand from cash buyers has helped to support transaction levels in recent quarters, since mortgage lending has remained relatively subdued.

"The significant rise in the share of cash transactions occurred in the wake of the financial crisis, where a tightening in credit conditions and a deterioration in the labour market limited the number of people able to buy with a mortgage."

The low interest rate environment in recent years, which has resulted in poor returns for savers, is likely to have supported the flow of investors' cash into property, he added.

The Bank of England's interest rate setters meet tomorrow but are expected to keep the base rate at its current record low of 0.5 per cent.